how to create a shortcut to electrum btc wallet

[Jonny85]

Hi

I am running ubuntu 16.04 LTS and downloaded the latest version of electrum btc wallet but I dont know how to launch it or create a shortcut, can someone help please?

[joniboini]

Another way to do it (after you install your Electrum) is to open your "Activities" window (press Windows key on your keyboard or click "Activities" on top-left of your desktop), and click Electrum. Your Electrum apps will open and you'll notice an Electrum icon on your taskbar/dock. Right-click the icon and click "Add to favorites".

This will make you can run Electrum by simply clicking the icon on the dock.

[Pmalek]

Here is an older post from Bitcointalk where another user had a similar problem when trying to find his installation file. Try that as well if you want.

Type "which electrum" in a terminal. it'll tell you the location of the executable file. You can then copy that location into your gnome launcher creation window.

However  I will again recommend that you stop using linux for something so important until you become a lot more comfortable using it.

[Artemis3]

Hi

I am running ubuntu 16.04 LTS and downloaded the latest version of electrum btc wallet but I dont know how to launch it or create a shortcut, can someone help please?

If you downloaded the binary, instead of using the package from the Ubuntu official repository, you first uncompress the compressed tar file into a folder, enter that folder and then you can launch it or make a shortcut from there.

If you select the file form there, pressing ctrl m makes a shortcut which you can move anywhere else.


Also, what you probably actually want, is to lock the icon into the dock dash (name unrelated to the altcoin) on the left.
tl;dr

Just launch Electrum and when the icon shows in the dash, Right-click the application icon and select Add to Favorites.

[NotATether]

Bumping this, because I found a universal way to install Electrum as a desktop launcher, that works in all distributions and window managers.

The python bundle of Electrum you can download on electrum.org has a file inside it called electrum.desktop. I have slightly edited this file to make it display an entry only for Electrum mainnet and testnet. The original file had a submenu for an entry that launches testnet, but I prefer to put the mainnet and testnet entries side by side.

electrum.desktop:

Code:

# If you want Electrum to appear in a Linux app launcher ("start menu"), install this by doing:
# sudo desktop-file-install electrum.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Comment=Lightweight Bitcoin Client
Exec=sh -c "/home/ubuntu/Electrum-4.0.3/run_electrum %u"
GenericName[en_US]=Bitcoin Wallet
GenericName=Bitcoin Wallet
Icon=electrum
Name[en_US]=Electrum Bitcoin Wallet
Name=Electrum Bitcoin Wallet
Categories=Finance;Network;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=electrum
Terminal=false
Type=Application
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/bitcoin;

electrum_testnet.desktop (I created this):

Code:

# If you want Electrum to appear in a Linux app launcher ("start menu"), install this by doing:
# sudo desktop-file-install electrum_testnet.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Comment=Lightweight Bitcoin Client (Testnet)
Exec=sh -c "/home/ubuntu/Electrum-4.0.3/run_electrum --testnet %u"
GenericName[en_US]=Bitcoin Wallet (Testnet)
GenericName=Bitcoin Wallet (Testnet)
Icon=electrum
Name[en_US]=Electrum Bitcoin Wallet (Testnet)
Name=Electrum Bitcoin Wallet (Testnet)
Categories=Finance;Network;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=electrum
Terminal=false
Type=Application
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/bitcoin;

Change the paths of /home/ubuntu/Electrum-4.0.3 in Exec directive to the path your Electrum installation is located.

Save these two files. Now by runnning desktop-file-install with each of these files, one at a time, you get two entries in your Applications menu, Activities, right-click context menu, top bar or however your desktop environment displays applications, one located in Network > Electrum Bitcoin Wallet and Network > Electrum Bitcoin Wallet (Testnet). Instead of Network it might also be located in the Finance category, it depends on the desktop environment.

I can easily make a desktop entry for regtest, but I'm not sure if you need to be able to pass arguments to it on the command line to make it work the way you want it to.